Millions wasted on farm inspections, says audit office
According to the National Audit Office (NAO), farm inspections in England burdens compliant farmers, cost taxpayers too much money (£5,500 average annual cost per farm) and are not streamlined or joined up enough.
Nine separate government bodies, including Natural England, the Environment Agency and the Rural Payments Agency, made at least 114,000 visits to English farms during 2011 and 2012, costing £47 million, reports Farmers Weekly.
Some 84% of farmers responding to the NAO survey believed oversight bodies should coordinate their activity more. Whilst farm inspections provide assurance that farmers comply with regulations and prevent animal disease and environmental pollution. They are also needed to check that farmers comply with common agricultural policy (CAP) so that they can receive payments from the European Union. The NAO report makes a series of recommendations around avoiding the duplication of effort, need for coordination and information sharing and ensuring cost effectiveness.
The report – ‘streamlining farm oversight’ – can be found here.
